National Briefs

Library doesn’t remove sexually-explicit gay book, just moves it to top shelf

NAMPA, Idaho The Nampa Public Library Board, saying that a small group of people should not be allowed to impose their will on the community, has decided not to remove a sexually explicit book from library shelves.

But the board at its meeting on Monday did approve moving “The Joy of Gay Sex,” along with as many as 60 other books with sexually oriented topics, to the highest shelves where they would be out of the reach of children.

Library Board Chair Sharon Brooks said the issue was not about the contents of one book, but about whether individuals should be able to remove material they don’t like from a public library.

“If one title is challenged, what will be next?” she said.

In December, after being rebuffed by the library board, Nampa resident Randy Jackson asked the Nampa City Council to remove “The Joy of Gay Sex” and “The Joy of Sex” from the Nampa library. The books contain drawings and photos of sexual activity.

“I’m very disappointed that the library has decided not to represent the needs of the family,” said Jackson. “It’s hard, even if you are an involved parent, to keep them away from that. I don’t feel like I should have to blindfold my kids when I take them through the library.”

DENVER The state Supreme Court has brushed aside complaints from advocates of domestic partnership seeking to bump a competing measure off the November ballot.

The court upheld the wording of a measure that would bar the state from recognizing anything “similar to” marriage for gay couples. The decision was handed down June 16 and made public Monday.

Backers of a ballot measure that would allow gay couples to register as domestic partners challenged the measure.

The proposed ban on gay marriage would be a constitutional amendment, and if approved, it would trump the domestic partnership proposal.

However, another proposed constitutional amendment that may be on the November ballot would allow domestic partnerships, said Jody Berger, communications director for the Coloradans for Fairness and Equality Action Fund.

Man convicted of molesting Wyoming teenager removed from priesthood

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio An man who served 15 months in prison for molesting a teenager in Wyoming was removed from the priesthood, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Steubenville said.

Anthony Jablonowski, 69, who was released last year from the Wyoming Honor Farm, a minimum-security facility, pleaded no contest in April 2004 to taking indecent liberties with a 17-year-old boy.

Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree April 7 dismissing Jablonowski from the clergy, according to a statement released June 16 by the Steubenville diocese. Jablonowski had returned to southeastern Ohio after being released from prison and registered as a sex offender in Washington County.

Jablonowski was serving as a priest in the Steubenville diocese when the allegations surfaced four years ago.

Prosecutors alleged Jablonowski molested the boy in a rectory when he came to seek counseling about being gay in 1982. Jablonowski served at St. Anthony Catholic Church in the southeastern Wyoming town of Guernsey from 1980 to 1988.

His most recent address was in Waterford, Ohio, at a lay religious order he founded more than a decade ago called the Carmelite Missionaries of Mary Immaculate.

Attendance soars this year at Pittsburgh’s Pride parade as amendment looms

PITTSBURGH An estimated 6,500 people turned out for an annual gay Pride march, an increase of about 60 percent over last year, organizers said.

Gov. Ed Rendell kicked off the 2006 Pittsburgh Three Rivers Gay Pride March on June 17, becoming the first Pennsylvania governor to appear at the 33-year-old event.

The event, organized by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh, came amid a pitched debate over gay marriage in Pennsylvania. A Senate panel last week approved a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, but it shortened the reach of the legislation by removing language that also would have outlawed civil unions.